In a nice piece of publicity for Google Earth, Google responded to speculation that the fabled Atlantis had been found just off the coast of Hawaii.

Update: looks like I lost it too, it’s actually off the west coast of Africa, only it’s not if you see what I mean…

The ordered lines certainly looked man-made and it turned out they were – in a way.

A detailed explanation from the scientists involved with the project confirmed that in fact the lines were ‘ship tracks’, showing the limited area covered by the ships echosounding the bottom of the sea – a lengthy and labour intensive job as it turns out.

The denial makes a nice story and will encourage others to explore the new Ocean service looking for further anomalies. Nice story, but even nicer piece of marketing.